Music

Sunday, February 23, 2014

It has come to this. The Academy Awards are to be unveiled one
week from today. But who cares, really, except for, seemingly, the entire
world? The New York Film Critics Circle? By busting a door down to be first,
they are now furthest away in the rear view mirror, having more or less defined
the framework of the entire awards season, Armond White’s contributions notwithstanding.
No, this weekend, the awards that really
mean something have already begun to be unveiled, and they are the 2013 edition
of the Muriel Awards.

Back in 2006 Paul Clark gathered a cadre of feisty, articulate, thoughtful
writers and inaugurated the group’s first collection of writing in consideration
of the year in film. (I’m proud to say I’ve been among that merry band from the
get-go.) He named the award after his beloved, deceased guinea pig (and why
not, Uncle Oscar?) and each year, in the week preceding the higher-profile, worldwide movie
award night, those who follow the Muriels get a healthy flashback on the year
in a variety of selected divisions, each with accompanying insightful essays,
as well as anniversary awards voted on in 10, 25 and 50-year anniversary
categories.

This year is, thanks to the tireless herding efforts of
Paul and Steve Carlson, no exception. Behold what has already posted:

“Those expecting an earnest
documentary approach to the cultural climate informingInside Llewyn
Davis, one which precisely lays out the scene and the
means by which we are to understand it from a historical perspective, will
inevitably be put off by the Coens’ typically perverse challenge to understand
a landmark moment in musical history from the point of view of a fly on the
wall. We are, after all, inside Llewyn Davis, a place where music has lost its
meaning as a social tool, as a means of reciprocal human connection, or as
anything other than the nearly abstract expression of pure talent and the
desire to be recognized. (In this regard, it ought to have resonated more fully
than it apparently did in the age ofAmerican Idol and instant, disposable fame.)”

You can read the rest of
that essay, and the rest of the pieces already posted on the official Muriels
blog Our Science is Too Tight, or you can check in here
at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule
for periodic updates and links to the latest 2013 Muriel awards as they come in.